Tranmere Rovers earn 2-1 home win over Walsall

“IT was a good performance against a hard-working side. In the first 15 minutes we did not get going but as the first half went on we came into the game and forced their goalkeeper to make some good saves.

“IT was a good performance against a hard-working side. In the first 15 minutes we did not get going but as the first half went on we came into the game and forced their goalkeeper to make some good saves. We didn't pick up the higher tempo at the start of the second-half and we probably scored the first goal against the run of play. It was a well-deserved win because Walsall worked really hard to close us down and try to stop us from playing.” Rovers boss LES PARRY happy his team got their just rewards.

“I AM amazed we have not come out of the game with something. We got bombarded by them before half-time but stood up well. They scored against the run of play but credit to my lads. They came back well and when we equalised I thought there was only going to be one winner. We certainly deserved something but unfortunately it was not to be.” Walsall manager DEAN SMITH sees things a little differently than his Tranmere counterpart.

IF the mark of a good side is the ability to conjure up moments of high quality football to win tight games, then Tranmere have good reason to be satisfied about Saturday’s victory at Prenton Park.

Patience, persistence and pressure were not proving sufficient on their own to carve out a break in the lines of resistance erected by Walsall. Rovers needed the sweetest of long-range strikes from midfielder Robbie Weir to finally make the breakthrough just before the hour mark. And after the Saddlers unexpectedly snatched an equaliser on 73 minutes, Les Parry’s team responded by scoring an even better winning goal seven minutes later.

It was finished from close range by substitute Mustafa Tiryaki but the beauty was in the succession of rapid one-touch passes that sliced open the Walsall defence and created the opening.

The two strikes would have graced any Premier League game and served to illustrate the progress Tranmere are making in the positive ambition of their football this season – and in carving out results.

A second home win in eight days lifted Rovers to eighth place in the League One table and to within two points of the play-off zone.

Travelling supporters won’t need reminding that the boot was on the other foot last month when Rovers suffered defeats at Huddersfield and Preston because the opposition trumped their best efforts with high-class goals. So there is encouragement to be drawn from this reversal of fortune.

Walsall, dogged as they were, had to question whether they showed sufficient enterprise to merit reward for a wholehearted effort. The overriding ambition of the visitors’ gameplan was to make it difficult for Tranmere to play. They succeeded to a large degree, but rarely looked inclined to try and force the initiative until they fell behind.

Manager Dean Smith talked to the media about his “disappointment” in allowing Tranmere to score the second goal. But you were left with the suspicion that the Saddlers might have benefited from a more positive approach during the first hour.

They could certainly have taken great advantage of a sluggish start by Rovers, who struggled to find cohesion in the opening 20 minutes.

The Midlanders were the first to put an effort on goal when Alex Nicholls’s shot sent goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams sprawling on 18 minutes; they then retreated into defence.

Walsall were well enough briefed on the influence of Jose Baxter to put a close marker, Anton Peterlin, on the talented Everton teenager. Even so, on the occasions when Baxter was able to find the space to make a pass, sparks flew.

A one-two with Weir resulted in a shot on the turn that thudded into the chest of Jimmy Walker on 21 minutes.

A well-struck 25 yard free-kick four minutes later was touched out of the top corner by the veteran keeper.

When Baxter’s crafty pass put Lucas Akins in space to play a low cross from the right in the 37th minute, Enoch Showunmi saw his shot blocked by Walker. Baxter’s effort from the rebound looked to be heading for the net on the first bounce until Walker scrambled to touch it over.

Tranmere started the second-half as hesitantly as they did the first and Walsall were quick in trying to make something of it. Kevan Hurst burst into the box within two minutes of the restart to fire a low shot that was well covered by Fon Williams.

Weir’s 59th minute opener was a fair reward for Tranmere’s pressure, however. Adam McGurk and Akins combined neatly to set up Weir in the inside right channel 25 yards from goal. The Irishman’s first-time shot was struck with deadly accuracy and venom into the top corner.

The home side could have wrapped up the game over the next 10 minutes. Akins’s cross from the right forced Walker into an uncomfortable tip over and an even better delivery from Akins on 70 minutes picked out the unmarked Zoumana Bakayogo at the far post. Unfortunately, the Tranmere substitute, who made a positive impression with his pace after replacing McGurk midway through the second-half, could not get over the ball and looped his head above the target.

Walsall’s equaliser was headed home by centre-back Andy Butler from a corner by Jamie Peterson, much to the frustration of Fon Williams, who had made the save of the match to deny Peterson’s low shot seconds before.

A couple of raids soon afterwards suggested Walsall might find the confidence to pursue a victory. But just when the threat from the visitors was looking greatest, Tranmere hit them with a brilliant counter-attack goal.

A move that began in the home team’s own half involved Akins and Weir, whose pass opened up Bakayogo’s galloping run into the box from the left. The Frenchman’s low cross was tucked away first time by Tiryaki, who had been on the pitch barely two minutes after replacing Showunmi.

It was a sweet moment for Tiryaki. The striker’s first goal in a Rovers shirt arrived just over a fortnight after his strike in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie against Accrington was wiped from the records when the game was abandoned.

There was time left for another substitute, Richard Taundry, to crash a 30 yard free-kick against the bar, adding, to Walsall’s frustrations.